We launched USDC seven years ago. It started with $25M from our corporate funds. It's now a $56B asset that generates billions each year. Here's the launch video:

You can see how quickly USDC grew. It was $0 before we launched it in Oct 2018. Now it's $55B: Here's the original blog post from Oct 2018:

This was the team that launched USDC at Coinbase in 2018: I was Coinbase CTO. @js_horne was PM. Maksim and Miha on engineering. Jim Migdal on BD. And here's the launch war room:

Here's how USDC launched. In mid-2018, Circle had an audited smart contract. But they'd exited the exchange business in 2016. Coinbase, meanwhile, had capital & distribution. So I flew to Boston and proposed a deal. We set up the CENTRE consortium with Circle. And capitalized it with $25M in corporate funds. The underlying idea behind USDC was simple. Back one USDC with one USD in a bank account. Just do 1:1 redemption. No order book, no conversion risk, no games. No volatile plutonium underlying a stablecoin. Just like withdrawing a dollar from an ATM... You withdraw a dollar to the blockchain. But executing that simple idea wasn't that easy. We needed a banking partner to hold the USD. And we needed to code the smart contract integration. Both nontrivial regulatory and security problems. Especially in 2018. However, with two brilliant engineers (@maksim_s @mihar), one resourceful BD lead (@JimMigdal), and a PM with the soul of an artist (@js_horne) — we got it done. From $0 to $1. And then to $1B+ in interest income. Within about five years. Pretty awesome partnership with @jerallaire and his Circle team.

What about a sick AI generated short film covering the following things: - The problem USDC solves. - The history of USDC. - The future of USDC.

Impressive growth story with USDC, Balaji. It highlights the potential of stablecoins in providing liquidity and stability in the crypto space. As we move forward, understanding the mechanics behind such assets is essential for building robust financial systems.

Truly admirable but can’t help But think Amazing how someone can sell you something just in another form and still make money because you are convinced it’s worth paying a fee for the same thing 🤔🤭😂

You are a visionary!

USDC sucks. Everyone should just use USDt.

Still missing to integrate a top 10 player because of the greed. Ah, the future of the industry selecting winners and losers.

Crazy to see how far it’s come!